“My people are sorry that this has occurred, and desire to say that they honor the Americans for their patriotism. They did not understand the reason for the interruption, but now that they see, they wish to beg the pardon of the sailors.” Phil as spokesman answered by proposing three cheers for the Japanese nation, which were given with a will, and the irrepressible Marley waved his flag, which had been the innocent cause of the trouble, high in the air. The audience filed out of the theatre in orderly fashion, and as the wide doors were thrown open the midshipmen saw drawn up across the street a company of regular soldiers, those who had been summoned by Takishima. “I would advise getting your men out by the back entrance.” Takishima was smiling, but his face was pale and his dark eyes bright with suppressed excitement. The lads noticed that the hand which raised his cloak trembled violently. Then they realized for the first time that the ordeal through which this youngster, scarcely a year older than themselves, had passed, had been one requiring every ounce of his nerve and grit. One mistake and the tide might have been turned against him, and the sacred order on his breast, the “rising sun of the second class,” would have been defiled and himself dishonored in the eyes of his brother officers. “Although Taki speaks our language the working of his mind is as different from ours as is the East from the West,” said Sydney. “What have we in our country symbolic of majesty or power?” he asked in a low voice. “If you or I had attempted to quell a disturbance in a New York theatre what could we use to bring the scattered ideas of the vast assemblage together?” Phil silently pointed to the flag as yet firmly clutched in Marley’s hand. Sydney nodded, half convinced only that his countrymen’s patriotism could be aroused by it to the point of obedience to a stripling’s orders. A blush of shame crept into Phil’s face as he suddenly remembered the secret document in his pocket. Would it not be a courteous act to give it over at once to Takishima to restore it to those who were anxiously searching through the entire city and who would be forever disgraced if it fell into the hands of the agents of a foreign power? CHAPTER VIII MISUNDERSTANDING